Bands that play the kind of music... you'd want to write

[Cheiron]

This can be the music that was in your head, before you heard a band play it, or when you hear the band it feels just like the type of music you'd write if you had the skill and knowhow to do so. Doesn't have to be just one band, but its not a favorite band list, necessarily.

It's a tad strange when you hear a band that plays the music in your head (even if you weren't aware of that music before). Voyager is one of those bands. I'm sure other bands will join them in the future. Blotted Science and Protest the Hero both come close, as does Pain of Salvation at times.

 

[ApolloFC]

Seeing as I'm apparently a student composer I'm always looking for different sounds. A while ago I had Devin Townsend in the head and so the orchestrations that I'd attempt to write would be in Open C Major (which is what Devin's in) and I would think in that tuning and I'd write it for orchestra sorta like I would write for guitar. Another option that I was thinking about doing was more of a neo-classical like shred to showcase a local guitarist/classmate (he has an amazing sound and skill). Its like: well, we could go the Yngwie route and make the guitarist do all the work.. or could do something along the lines of Paul Gilbert or Vinnie Moore where the orchestra could have more to do.

 

[BenMech]

I'd like to see if I could be Complete, because it must take pure vision and technique to be as wonderfully awful as they are.

 

[Bamafan]

I have to agree with General Zod: Redemption. Intelligent lyrics, beautiful melodic passages and serious crunch are what I would try to achieve. Or maybe SRV, because my inner shredder and Texas bluesman are constantly at war.

 

[ashaman7122]

I'd like to see if I could be Complete, because it must take pure vision and technique to be as wonderfully awful as they are.

Heehee...I totally dig this...let's form our own Hoogie-Boogie land!

As for me: When I was in Jr. High and High School, I wanted to be that harder-edged, down-tuned, slightly off-beat catchy hard rock...Ratt put out what I was trying to be. In college, I wanted to do the blues, but with a heavy-ish, slightly unhinged roadhouse vibe...Barefoot Servants (I love Jon Butcher!) delivered that. As far as metal was concerned, I wanted socially-conscious pissed off punchy metal, which Howe-era Metal Church and F&J delivered.

Didn't have my eyes on the stars...but that's the kinda shit that hit me down the middle at the time.

For example...a few years back...I could have easily been Masterplan or Thunderstone...if only, right?

 

[J-Dubya 777]

Musically speaking, Frank Zappa & Freak Kitchen.... For those that know me, this is a given....

 

[Bryant]

My favorite bands of all time are Accept and Vanden Plas. Both are German and both have guitarists with similar tone and feel but other than that I see very little similarity........ yet there is a vibe/feeling I get from both bands that are so familiar..... it is odd. I have other bands I "really like" but at least one of those two have been the undisputed champs since around 1985 or so. They make music that simply works for me in ways I can not begin to describe, so I would want to write music like them.
Unfortunatley, I can't. Musically, the songs I write tend to sound more like Metal Church or Tad Morose (Daniel era) than anything else. Those bands were also a big influence on me as well, and the American Powermetal/American thrash blend like Metal Church offered flows out of me like water. My solos sound more like Stephan's or Wolf's (not that good mind you) than anyone else's but I haven't been able to write a song that has that "Accept sound" or that sounds much like Vanden Plas either.


Bryant

 

[J-Man]

If I could write music, I wish that I could write Like Tuomas Holopanien, man that guy can write, he puts his whole heart and soul into what he puts down on paper. Also, I wish i could write some of the things that Nick Van Dyke has written so crunchy, but yet melodic, with lyrics that are amazing.

 

[OdinsCourt]

Devin Townsend...Type O Negative...Dredg...and when I heard them for the first time years ago, Pink Floyd...

 

[FatesFan]

If I could write music I would want to be able to write songs like Nick Van Dyke does. Not only is the music amazing but the lyrics are amazing as well. I am not one who usually pours over lyrics, in fact I very rarely know what the lyrics are to many of the songs I listen to as I am most interested in the sounds of the vocal melody than what it has to say. And most often when I go to read the lyrics to a song I like I am almost always left disappointed by them. But with Redemption, I do know the lyrics and they have never left me disappointed. Top drawer music with top drawer lyrics makes Redemption the band I would want to emulate if I could.

 

[Orion Crystal Ice]

The first Gordian Knot album is definitely one of the first things I can think of. Wish Sean would get into another project (the last Cynic doesn't count since you can't hear him on it).

 

[General Zod]

If I could write music like any artist, it would be Redemption. When I was in a band, that was the sound I was always striving for... I just didn't know. And furthermore, I lacked the musical vision and talent to conceive it.

 

[Prospektoxford]

Dream Theater's 'Images and Words' is musically amazing. I look upon that album as a benchmark to anything I write, aswell as Adagio's 'Underworld'...what an album that is!!!

 

[Bryant]

If I could write music like any artist, it would be Redemption. When I was in a band, that was the sound I was always striving for... I just didn't know. And furthermore, I lacked the musical vision and talent to conceive it.

I had half of your problem. I am not saying I was the next Yngwie or anything, but when I was in my late teens/early twenties, I was pretty far ahead of the curve so to speak, as I could play my ass off. However, anything I tried to write sounded too contrived or almost exactly like someone else's music.


Bryant

 

[General Zod]

However, anything I tried to write sounded too contrived or almost exactly like someone else's music.

It's very tough to find an original voice, regardless of how intent you may be on doing so.

 

[Bamafan]

It's very tough to find an original voice, regardless of how intent you may be on doing so.

In my case, it was a LOFT problem: lack of fucking talent. Even if I had spent my 20's practicing guitar as much as I spent learning vaginas, I'd never have been anything more than a second rate hotel bar band talent.

 

[Soundscape]

Apes and Androids.

 

[General Zod]

The other band whose music I would love to be able to write... My Dying Bride. The perfect symmetry between the music and the lyrics is amazing.

 

[Bryant]

I still find myself to this day, a technician as opposed to an artist. I can put myself around budding musicains who really can't play technical stuff, but can strike a few chords that just seem to be "different from the norm" and can build off of it in a serious way. I am a very "emotic" person, so you think writing something from scratch would be easy, but it is simply not the case.
I can write the emotic solos mind you, off the top of my head. I am a HUGE David Gilmour fan. I am not saying I am as good as he is by a long-shot, but you can hear some influence and I am far from ashamed of it.

Bryant